Orphan Black 2:10 Recap: A Few Less Sisters, A Few More Surprises…

 
Well, it’s a wrap on Season 2 of Orphan Black and as with the first season, more questions than answers crop up, but thee also seem to be a few things that got resolved in one way or another. Still, some things were a bit odd to me. A few of the important characters from the first season ended up dying (in oddball manners, at that), although I’m thinking one may make a return as we only saw her somewhat gravely injured and not actually “dead.” Shades of Helena’s “demise” in the first season, I guess. speaking of Helena, her arc was pretty interesting up to the point that she somehow got snatched near the close of the show, meaning so much for the happy reunion/dance party that cheered up the proceedings for a bit.

 
Poor Cosima looked as she wasn’t going to make it through the entire episode at all, but thankfully, she was still hanging on at the end. That said, she still needs to be cured of what she’s got, but thanks to another dead character, it seems that cure might be one for the books (or IN the books, if you saw the show and smiled at a certain scene). I got a bit confused at one point, so I’ll need to watch the episode again thanks to me looking down at something I was writing for about thirty seconds and missing something important. Oops.

 
Still, the end reveal made me see that Season 3 will be a bit packed in terms of plot twists and even more surprises. I kind of figured there was more than one clone type out there, but who it turned out to be was an interesting bit of business, that’s for sure. Oh well… here’s to waiting for the announcement of when Season 3’s shooting gets underway. Hopefully, BBC America will keep the first two seasons On Demand and not split them up to a “pay more to see this!” service like certain other dopey networks have done with their programming…

E3 2014: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Monolith Just Might Be Making The Lord of The Lord of the Rings Games…

MeSoM boxartVeteran developer (and former publisher) Monolith Productions has been around since 1997, but it’s upcoming game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor may just be the studio’s most important game to date. The upcoming open world action/RPG set to hit PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 7, 2014 looks to bring an all-new hero, Talion (a ranger who’s been killed but revived with supernatural powers) into the familiar world created by J. R. R. Tolkien. The game’s story is written by Christian Cantamessa (a lead-writer and lead-designer on Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead Redemption) and Monolith is working with Middle-earth Enterprises, Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop ensuring that everything in the game is as close to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit canon as it gets while introducing some new and appealing elements.

 
Additionally, in the case of the PC and next-gen versions, the developer is also looking to expand the enemy AI in their game with something called the Nemesis System that gives each foe a back story, motivations and memories, allowing them to fight more fiercely and even remember how you’ve treated them if you happen to let them live when encountering them during gameplay. Another cool thing is the game will randomize who you encounter and allow no two play-throughs to be exactly the same. Talion will be able to influence enemies to fight each other, ally with him to take to the battlefield with some assistance and more. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will most likely see this system slimmed down a bit, but if those versions retain the open world,enough of the abilities Talion has to affect enemies and the unique enemy placement, it’ll absolutely be well worth a buy… Continue reading